Sunday, May 27, 2012

Spanish is hard but I am learning and catching onto things quickly. I don't have much time today so I need to hurry and tell you a few things. First, last Sunday during hunger games...haha sacrament meeting I was the one that got called up. My comp said as soon as I walked up everyone was silent and all eyes were glued on me. I prepared a good talk and I know that the spirit was telling everyone to listen to me. It was on the great apostasy and restoration of the gospel. Boy has my testimony gained on this topic. It was in spanish of course and I know that the spirit helped everyone to understand what I was saying. Everyone kept telling me how great I did and I knew it wasn't me. I am so glad to have the spirit as a constant companion. There is seriously not a better gift. So I forgot to tell you all but I have 2 callings here at the MTC. One is the service leader so I lead all of the service projects and then one is the relief society music coordinator. It has been a lot of work but I have had so much fun serving in these areas. So we went tracting this week and I wish I could tell you everything but I can't. All I need to say is that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers when we are sincerely praying. Wow it was rough we happened to knock on the worst door ever and this Islamic man came out and yelled at us forever. He couldn't take a Book of Mormon because "we mormons" have touched it and he isn't allowed to touch girls and all this crazy stuff. I couldn't believe it hahahaha. I just kept nodding and catching a few words. It was hard but when we were done I said to my comp let's just be happy and pray for help. So we said a prayer and the next road we went down was INTENSE!!!! We found 3 people that wanted to learn about our message and families too! I was so happy. We sang them songs because they love music and it is so precious here. They never really hear it. The spirit was so strong as my comp and I gave away 7 books of Mormon!!!!!! That's right 7!!!!! Our goal was 6 and I couldn't believe how blessed we really were that whole day. The spirit seriously guided us to everyone we needed to talk to. This lady we talk to at the beginning we found her later through prayer and gave her a book of mormon and she was looking for us. Another lady came up to US and asked what we could share with her. Wow the blessings are crazy and I am loving the spirit in my life. So guess what, it is winter here and it rains ALL of the time. A LOT and thunder is soooo loud here. The power goes out a lot but it's so beautiful. I am leaving on MONDAY to Nicaragua at 1 in the afternoon. I can't wait to get out there and teach. I have learned so much about Nicaragua . I am going to miss my district sooo much it's sad. They are so great. They all want to meet Tay when he gets back because some would be way good friends with him I just know it. I am doing great and I am healthy and I know you are praying for me. The last time I ever will go to the temple was Thursday so now I am done till I get home and get to go with mom and dad! Nothing better than seeing my parents in white. Thanks Jeff for your letter. See you all in NICARAGUA!!!! hahahahahaha sooooooooo excited. I have to go now. Love you all. I will film some more experiences and send them with pictures next week. I love you so much. Please keep praying I need all the help I can get.Love you,Hermanan Parker

Sunday, May 13, 2012

I can't believe this little angel from heaven has grown up to be such a beautiful, amazing daughter of God serving her Heavenly Father. She is still an angel and we love her so much! My favorite and most cherished Mother's day gift this year was hearing from my beautiful daughter, Courtney! It was so wonderful to hear her sweet voice and we felt the spirit so strongly! What an amazing Sister Missionary she is turning out to be! She isn't able to send pictures until she's in the mission field--we can't wait to see them! We will post them as soon as we can! Thanks, Natali, for all of your help with the blog, and thanks for all of the love and support from everyone!!

Nathans rainbow was
so adorable and thanks for the pictures they are hanging in my closet
right now! Thanks for the dear elders as well. I appreciate all of the
letters. I love getting them so please keep sending. Probably start
sending to nicaragua soon though because it is getting late and on
monday I will only have 2 weeks left here. Spanish is coming along. I mean I cant say that much yet but I am able to teach and I have
learned the gospel vocabulary to some extent so I am thankful to know that. WOW sooo awesome that mom and dad bore their testimonies on sunday because so did I!!!!!! And in spanish hahahaha. Yeah, thats right I did in spanish and the spirit was so strong that day that I just had to get up. Thanks for your sweet testimonies mom and dad. You are the best parents ever and I hope you both know how much I care for each of you. I talk about you often and I know that I am blessed to have you. We watched the joseph smith movie sunday and it was seriously amazing. I have seen it a bunch of times and it was never as spiritual as it was this time. I saw it in a whole new way. It was amazing and I cried and cried because of the sacrifice that Joseph Smith was willing to give for the gospel. Ok so this is for Tay, Our trip to the big map of guatemala was amazing!!!! And I took some pictures for you because I couldnt believe how much the spirit was there when my president was telling us about guatemala. So they arent positive obviously but taylors mission is actually where they think Christ came in the first coming. It was amazing. He was telling us
where Nephi was and where zarahemla was and all of that stuff and he was giving us proof kind of and it all sounded so right. They dont
know for sure but taylor is probably serving where Christ came. I
think thats amazing and I wanted him to know that.
I hope all is well you deserve the best! TK is not here yet. I
think there was a problem with his visa. Tell Nat and Jeff thanks so much for the dear elders. I hope miles and holly had a great birthday! I wrote them last
week and will try to write jeff back today. Let haley know that I love her and that I sent off a letter last week. Also, Jen, I love you too. I wrote you about 2 weeks ago but I didnt know you moved so make sure you get it from the pink house. Chan, I got your letter. Thanks so much I love you and I am glad you are doing well!!! Thanks for the support everyone. Family, This week when I was reading moroni 5:2 (the sacrament scripture) I was reading it as if it were just to me... like "which was shed for ME" and that "I must always have the spirit to be with ME" and it gave sacrament a whole new meaning. Try doing that this sunday at church and I promise you will feel the Saviors love for you. He died for every single one of us and he loves us so much. There is an elder in my district who just found out last night that his grandparents had passed away. It broke my heart and my companion and I just cried and cried all night long. I just admire his dedication to the work and I want all of the people in my mission to know that we can return to our families and that we can always be with them if we have faith and follow Christ. I have gained such a strong testimony. I have only been here 3 weeks and I know way more than I have ever known
about the gospel. I am so grateful to be in this church. Thanks mom
and dad for raising me to believe and to help me stay on the right
path. I am so grateful. I pray for you all everyday. I pray for your
health and for you all to keep making the right decisions. Always know you can turn to God whenever you are down and He will be there for you. thats so crazy about the rattle snake. I cant believe that but I am so glad that no one was hurt. Thats scary. Actually when we were out teaching the other week this man walked by me and took off his hat and started bowing to me and at first I thought it was like cute that he would do that but then he started talking and my companion who was then a latina said rapido rapido! Which means get out of there basically and I was so scared because he kept following me but then we finally got away. The latins are really obsessed with us north americans. Its really funny at the mtc. We just got a whole new group of ppl because all of the latinos left after 3 weeks. I am almost done here and I am learning lots. Spanish is still rough but I am learning everyday and teaching everyday to practice. Things are great. Love you!!!! Talk to you soon!!! 15 minutes though only. Also, make sure its 3 guatemala time. Thanks bye

thursday night and this time i got 10 and I was soooooo pumped andeveryone was jealous and I was so happy!!!! Sorry I cant read all ofyour emal sometimes so if I dont answer all of your questions I amsorry!!!! First and foremost I need you to know that I will be callingon MOTHERS DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so happy when I heard that. Theywill call you and set up a time so make sure you answer the phoneplease. or we cant talk. ok so I have so much to tell you and I hope Ican say it all in the time I have left!!! Basically last sunday was soamazing! So every sunday its like this huge hunger games and they call up 6 speakers to talk and we have to just be put on the spot and wehave to teach in spanish. crazy!!!! Last week our talk was on faithand I was praying I wouldnt get called up because the latinos woulddie of trying to be patient. But I did not get called but then insunday school my companinon and I had to teach on tithing and we hadprepared on a different topic but the teacher changed it so it wasscary but I was relying on the spirit to help me and I did very welland I even started crying and the spirit was so strong. Then thatnight we all watched the testaments and after the movie was over mywhole zone was quiet for like 10 minutes and tears were streaming downeveryones faces. It was so intense and I felt Christs love for us somuch. He died for US!!!! All of us and he suffered so much so that wecould be happy. It amazes me. Then the best day ever was on tuesdayand we got to go out into the city and teach people. My companion andI got split up and I was with a sister that didnt know any english sosometimes we had a hard time communicating. Then I was in charge ofintroducing ourselves and then she would teach. We got 7 contact cardsand this is the best part.... This lady we were teaching was sayingshe was a diff religion and we talked about the gospel to her and shewas so nice and she could feel the spirit i just know it because Icould feel it and I had no idea what they were even talking about. Andthen all of the sudden the spirit told me to take out my book ofmormon and give it to her. I was so scared but I pulled it out and Ibore my testimony of the book of mormon to her and my eyes filled upwith tears and I told her how it was so true and that I have felt the spirit testify to me when I read that its a true book. She looked at

me as if what I was telling her was something she had always wanted tohear. She was so interested. I wrote my name in the book of mormon andshe told me she would read it. As soon as I walked away I startedbawling. The spirit was so strong and I was so happy and I pray forher everyday because I want her to read it and find out forherself!!!!! it is sooo poor here. Like crazy dogs are just layingalmost dead on the streets. Noone is out working everyone is justwalking the streets with their families. Its soooo poor. Be sothankful for everything that you have because they have nothing andthey are happy here. The people are sooo nice. So this week I went tothe temple and the lady that helped me didnt know english so I had todo the whole thing in spanish but for some reason I was able to sayeverything and didnt stumble and I had never even heard the wordsbefore. I know it was only because I was in the temple doing the rightthing. So its crazy here there are HUGE bugs and its wayy hot. It was88 in my room this morning but I actually like it so it wasnt bad. SoI was having a way hard time with spanish and I started praying reallyhard. Not even kidding, about 10 minutes later a new book from provocame for all of us and it was an answer to my prayer. I am soooo gladthat I am here. I know that I am where I need to be. I got lettersfrom haley, nat and fam and jeff and fam and They should know Imwriting them back today. P day is the best. Tuesday we get to go on ahuge trip and see book of mormon sights. I cant wait!!!! And we get togo to wendys I am so excited. We played soccer yesterday and I wasschooling all the guys hahaha. they were like all wanting me on theirteam it was funny!!!!! I actually dont know when Im leaving here. theyare not very organized but its either 28 or 21 of this month!!!! happycinco de mayo!!!! they dont celebrate in guatemala but thats ok. Sothis elder was saying his friend went to border of mexico on hismission like where tay is going and said that they were teachingtribal people and they were saying that they had heard what they wereteaching from their ancestors!!!!! I couldnt believe it. Taylor willget so many baptisms I cannot wait for him. He will do soooogreat!!!!! I am doing sooo good and we have been practicing teachingin spanish a lot!!!!! Seriously learning so much and getting newsentences I can teach about everyday. I am learning and I cant believeI was at zero spanish when I arrived. I love it here and yes sometimesit can be hard but then I think of the love I have for my family and this gospel and it makes serving so much easier. I miss everyone

and Love you all soooo much!!! Tell everyone how grateful I am for theirsupport and I will be talking to you in a week!!!!! Mom, dad, jo, tay,lolo, josh, nate I love you!!!!!!!

Nicaragua

Online Letter at DearElder.com

D&C 121:7-9

My son {daughter}, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes. Thy friends do stand by thee, and they shall hail thee again with warm hearts and friendly hands.